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DIOCESE

A Letter from

Bishop Hugh Gilbert O.S.B.

The Road from Emmaus life and the ways we ordinarily express our faith have been
“broken”, interrupted by this pandemic. I wonder though: will
we see in retrospect that there was always someone with us?
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, That there was always the light of faith? And now with public
worship returning, we can take the road back from Emmaus.
It will be so good to go back to church, to see each We return to Jerusalem, to the Upper Room. We are returning
other again, celebrate Mass together again. There will still to community as the two on the road returned to the Eleven.
be a distance to travel, and distances to maintain, before In Cardinal Sarah’s phrase, we are “returning to the Eucharist
normality returns, but we are heading in the right direction. with joy”. We are coming back to the sacramental presence of
I’ve been reminded of one of the great Easter Gospels – the Lord. “Jesus himself stood among them”. In a sense, the
the story of the two disciples on Easter day, unaware of the Jesus who accompanied the pair on the road and broke bread
Resurrection, heading for Emmaus, heading home presumably, with them in Emmaus was a “virtual” Jesus, disguised, briefly
disappointed men. It’s St Luke who tells us this, in ch. 24 of his recognised only to vanish. The Jesus with them and the Eleven
Gospel, verses 24 to 35. We know the story: the stranger on the after their return to Jerusalem says, “Touch me and see. For a
road who starts to speak with them, explains Scripture to them, spirit does not have flesh and blood, as you see that I have.” The
is recognised at table and then vanishes from their sight. Night “real” Jesus.
is falling, but their delight and excitement are such that they go The whole experience of Jesus’ death and resurrection must
back to Jerusalem at once, burst in on the Eleven to tell them have been deeply disorientating, needing time to absorb, to
their news, only to hear that Jesus has just appeared to Simon recover from. Energy and purpose must have taken time to
Peter too. Then, “Jesus himself stood among them, and said to return. The disciples needed those forty days, and then the
them, ‘Peace be with you!’” further time of prayer in that Upper Room waiting for the
There are many connections here, surely, with what we have Holy Spirit to come. We will need time to recover too from
been living through. Pope Francis has spoken of the dangerous the losses and challenges we have been – and still are – living
“virus of discouragement”. It has been hard to avoid it. The through. Christ, though, had risen even before those two had
two disciples tell the stranger a “broken” story: about the good left Jerusalem. He is always there before us.
Jesus did and how badly it ended. Sure, there are rumours of
the body missing from the tomb, but there was no sight of him.
“Him they did not see”: it’s a tragic line. So much of ordinary + Bishop Hugh OSB

If you have access to the internet do take a look at some of
the many inspiring talks and homilies given by Bishop Hugh
Gilbert OSB and other members of the clergy and religious
which are now available on the Diocese of Aberdeen YouTube
Channel. These include Bishop Hugh Gilbert's talk on the
encyclical Fratelli Tutti by Pope Francis and more recently his
catechesis on the Good Samaritan which you can watch here:

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